Refugees suffer in mud and rain as European countries bicker

Thousands of refugees found themselves stuck at bottlenecks between Serbia,
Croatia and Slovenia

Migrants protect themselves from the rain as they wait to cross the Croatian border near the village of Berkasovo, Serbia Photo: Reuters

By Oscar Webb on the Croatia-Slovenia border, and Nick Squires

8:13PM BST 19 Oct 2015

Thousands of refugees stranded in the Balkans shivered in cold and mud on Monday as Austria, Slovenia and Croatia exchanged bitter recriminations over how to deal with the latest stage of Europe's chronic migration crisis.

Countries along the so-called Western Balkans migration route engaged in a toxic blame game, accusing each other of passing the buck by allowing thousands of migrants to cross from one nation to another on their relentless march in search of a better life.

The result was thousands of refugees, the majority from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, spending days and nights in the cold and wet, trying to keep warm by lighting fires as crying children wandered around barefoot in the rain or huddled under plastic sheets.

Around 1,500 people were trapped in a no-man’s-land on the border between Croatia and Slovenia, with Slovenia refusing to let them pass.

Croatia, for its part, argued that it was pointless to try to stop the refugees because they are determined to reach countries such as Germany and Sweden and have no intention of seeking asylum in the Balkans.

Slovenian policemen keep order as migrants attempt to board the first bus after opening the border with Slovenia in Trnovec, Croatia

“The Republic of Croatia has asked these refugees to stay at our reception centres until their status is resolved, but they all refuse it," said Matija Posavec, the governor of Medjimurje, Croatia's northernmost county bordering Slovenia. “They just want to pass."

Ranko Ostojic, Croatia's interior minister, said his country would not allow itself to become a "migrant collection centre" for the EU and accused Greece for failing to stem the flow of tens of thousands into Europe from Turkey.

Hanya said 'I'd rather die in Syria with my family than in this place'. They've been stuck here for 12 hours pic.twitter.com/lmnAUTnmD3

Slovenia erected metal fences at its border crossing of Sredisce ob Dravi, forcing refugees to wait for around 14 hours on the border, without food or shelter.

Stuck between the two countries and wanting only to continue their journeys to western Europe, refugees became increasingly angry and frustrated.

Hundreds of migrants at a border crossing with Croatia are prevented from crossing into Slovenia, early on Monday morning Photo: AP

Some shouted “You kill us” and “We are dying here, open (the) gate,” at Croatian police, who would not let them back into Croatia.

Hanya Sheik, a 30 year-old woman from Damascus, was sitting under a sodden blanket with her three children – a two-year-old boy and girls aged six and 10 – along with her 60 year-old-mother, as the rain poured down.

“Why are they doing this?” she asked. “We have been here for 12 hours and have had no food, no water. My children are cold, my baby is sick. I would rather die in Syria with my family than here in this horrible place.”

Croatian police said they did not know why Slovenian officers just across the border were refusing to let the refugees pass.

But a spokesman for the Slovenian government said: “We have invested maximum efforts to take care of migrants and to protect them from adverse weather conditions but cannot cope without cooperation from neighbouring countries.”

Mohammed, a 23-year-old university student from Aleppo, said of the Slovenian police: “They treat us like dogs. Why do they make us wait here in the rain? We have to wait like this everywhere. And here it rains, we are cold, this situation is very bad.”

Robert Kranjcec, a member of the Croatian Red Cross, said he and other volunteers had arrived with clean food, shoes and emergency blankets.”

Volunteers were helping to change children out of their wet clothes.

Migrants cross the Croatia-Slovenia border in Sredisce ob Dravi

“Children are our main concern, they are the most vulnerable’, Mr Kranjcec said.

That is far below the 5,000-6,000 who are on the move on any given day.

Further south along the refugee trail, volunteers on the border between Greece and Macedonia said that migrant camps were full to overflowing as 15,000 crossed the frontier at the weekend.

From there, at least 10,000 started walking towards Serbia.

At Berkasovo on the Serbia-Croatia frontier, Jan Pinos, a Czech volunteer, said: "This is beyond our capacity. There is no one from the authorities here. We need police, army, some tents, food. It's a matter of time before this is out of control.”

The UN refugee agency said more than 10,000 migrants were stranded in cold and rain in Serbia.

Melita Sunjic, a spokeswoman, described the situation as "awful and hellish."

She added: “These people are out in the open, they cannot sleep on the ground because of knee-deep mud."

More than 600,000 refugees have reached Europe's shores so far this year, on dangerous journeys that have left more than 3,000 dead or missing.

The ultimate goal for many is Germany, but Angela Merkel's open-door policy has sparked a dangerous backlash.

The Chancellor has faced a dip in opinion polls and a rebellion in her own conservative ranks, especially in the southern state of Bavaria, the main gateway for refugees.